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FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb just ended a press call where they discussed the impact of Hurricane Sandy and the federal response. Some highlights:

- States will decide how the storm affects local election efforts. Maryland, for instance, canceled early voting for today. FEMA could reimburse states for extraordinary measures that are taken to carry out the election, as it did in Florida in 2004, Fugate said. “It needs to be safe and secure,” Fugate said. “This will be led by states and their election commission supervisors.”

- FEMA is distributing emergency generators and other supplies to seven states, plus the District of Columbia, where there is a declared state of emergency. The 400 generators are the types used to run critical facilities such as water treatment plants and hospitals.

- The agency has enough money in its Disaster Relief Fund to carry out its response to Hurricane Sandy, Fugate said.

- The National Hurricane Center expects a surge of four to eight feet between Delmarva Peninsula and Connecticut/Long Island Sound and between six and 11 feet in low-lying areas, some of which were subject to mandatory evacuation (in parts of New York City, for instance.)

- While tropical cyclones along the East Coast are not uncommon, the combination of rain, flooding and snow in some inland areas (such as West Virginia and southwestern Virginia) is unprecedented, National Hurricane Center officials said.

Washington has pretty much shut down in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. The federal government and school districts are closed. The Washington Metro and its bus system are closed. Airports are open, but airlines aren’t flying. Thankfully, for those of us working today, there are a few brave coffee shops open.

The National Weather Service expects hurricane-force wind gusts today in the Washington area and rainfall of five to 10 inches. NWS says “major river flooding is likely to occur” on the Potomac and the Shenandoah.

The DC-area electric utility, PEPCO, won’t predict how many people will lose power, but it would be shocking if the number wasn’t in the thousands. PEPCO is tracking the number of outages on this map, which shows earliest outages affecting 275 people in Northwest Washington. President Obama has told the country to expect power outages and to be patient in expecting power to return.

UPDATE, 2:15 pm: The state of Maryland has announced it will close the Tydings Bridge, which means nothing to your evening commute in Dallas, but pretty much shuts down traffic on one of the business stretches of highway in America. The towering bridge spans the Susquehanna River in eastern Maryland, and is a landmark to anyone driving between New York and Washington. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said today he couldn’t remember the last time the state closed the Tydings Bridge, which speaks to the projected impact of this storm.